Reynolds faces a ‘losing’ battle to regain his place

Richard Fidler
Sheffield Wednesday

There were many poor performances on display at Stevenage on Tuesday night from players in blue and white striped shirts.

One member of the Sheffield Wednesday first-team squad who didn’t put a foot wrong, however, was Mark Reynolds. The Scottish left-back didn’t make Gary Megson’s 16-man squad for the match, which many may have thought an advantage for selection ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Yeovil.

Don’t expect to see the former Motherwell man stepping in any time soon, though, after the Owls’ boss poured cold water on suggestions that he could replace Julian Bennett at Huish Park.

Megson said: “It’s not a case of Mark Reynolds. We’ve got 24 players here, with a few kids who have swelled the ranks a bit. But Mark has had opportunities in the past. I think he played against Peterborough last season and he got criticised as we got smashed at home.

“It’s not an open book here where you keep going and keep going. The task is a lot more immense than that. You can’t keep saying ‘he’s not doing so well, so put him in’. Whoever gets that opportunity has to go and take it.”

Reynolds, who hasn’t been on a winning team in his 12 appearances with Wednesday, has grown with confidence and stature during each of his four games this season.

In the Owls’ draw at Charlton Athletic - the club’s only point away from Hillsborough - he performed well in the team’s best road result.

However, Megson said it wasn’t as simple as chopping and changing the team for the sake of it: “A player left here who we’d played eight times as a central defender; he’d never won as a central defender and we’d conceded 3.3 goals per game. We could give him a go, maybe? We can’t just give people a go; it’s too big.

“Everyone in football and outside football has an opinion. There’s only one person who has an opinion that becomes a decision and that is me.

“I have to see all the other things because no-one else will make a mistake because it’s just an opinion.

“I have one (an opinion) about cricket but it doesn’t make any difference because for one I don’t know what I’m on about and, two, there’s no consequence to it. I’m not decrying anyone for having an opinion but they need to look at facts and look at Mark’s record when he has played left-back for Sheffield Wednesday.”